Construction Wood Fire Produces Heavy Smoke In West Las VegasHeavy Smoke Could Be Seen For Miles

Fire officials believe a grass fire started a large pile of wood sheeting on fire in a construction lot in West Las Vegas early Wednesday afternoon. Several neighbors used garden hoses in an attempt to put the fire out. There were no injuries in connection with incident.

Firefighters responded at 2:24 p.m. to a construction yard at 2020 W. Bonanza Road (at Clarkway Dr) after reports that a barn was on fire. When firefighters arrived on scene, they actually found two large piles of wood sheeting on fire. The sheeting was tightly packed and fire appeared to be burning in between each sheet, so to put the fire completely out, each sheet would have to be removed.

The owner of the property arrived on scene and assisted firefighters by allowing the use of a forklift that was on the property to be used to break up the pile which made the operation easier.

The owner said the wood was used to make concrete forms used for highway projects such as barrier walls.

Neighbors said they first noticed smoke in the large lot and saw tall grass burning. The wind was pushing the flames across the grass toward the piles of wood. They tried stretching garden hoses to the piles in an attempt to cut off the flames before it got to the piles of wood, but they did not have enough hose to reach the piles. Brisk westerly winds help fan the flames and intensify the fire from time to time. It took firefighters about 90 minutes to knock down most of the flames. It would take at least an additional hour to break the piles up completely to make sure all hot spots were extinguished.